Connemara 12

[Aidan]

I like Connemara, but the 12 yr old is too expensive. I had a box of three minatures recently.

Anyway, to my point, the 12 yr old is super. Great balance of smoke and sweetness and beautiful clean malt. I'd almost buy a whole bottle.

[Frodo]

I wish I had more opportunity to try this a few more times at the Tasting Tower. The last time I tried it, I felt it was worth what was charged for it (2.9 JWB index). The flavour development I found relatively subtle but nothing I'd have to strain to catch.

The interesting thing is that this is one of the few Irish whiskies above the price of JWB that I consider a worth buying at the LCBO. Knappogue Castle '94 was JWB 1.5, Bushmills 16 1.9 as was Jameson 18. Nice drams all, but not worth the $$ IMO. Lockes was even worse value at JWB 1.5, and the Bushmills CS NAS (non-chill filtered) for JWB 2.3 was good but not $90 good. A Middleton VR I tried a while ago for JWB 4.2 was a memorable dram, but not worth the $$.

Below JWB there are lots of good deals on Irish that would vie for the label "everyday pour". I just wish Irish distillers would bring the prices down on some of the higher-end stuff like the Bushmills NAS CS NCF. I would like to investigate these whiskies some more, but not with the current pricing in effect.

The other thought I had was that Conemarra tastes rather like Scotch, so it's an easy leap to make for those not used to the more traditional tripple-distilled unpeated stuff.

[Aidan]

Knappogue Castle is worth buying, I think. However, I think it gets its extremely high rating in the whiksy bible bacuse of who formulated it...

The standard Connemara is very good value for an Irish, although it's not as good as the 12 yr old.

Jameson 18 is also very very good, but it's just too expensive. Jameson 12 is nearly as nice and much much less expensive.

[Virginia Gentleman]

I really like the Connemara 12 year old as well but it is not worth $120 US dollars.

[Lord_Pfaffin]

I have only seen bottlings of Magilligan's once or twice at the LCBO, have tried the peated and unpeated versions. They were wonderfull and $20 less than the Conemarra, also from Cooley's and tasted very much like single malt scotch, maybe better. Anyhow, a very nice dram, well worth the money.

[Aidan]

I really like the Connemara 12 year old as well but it is not worth $120 US dollars.

You're right, of course. I think the price will be coming down in the future, though, as stocks increase.

I have yet to taste the Magilligan. They have a sherry cask one that would be interesting, as almost all of Cooley's stuff is matured in bourbon casks.

[patrick dicaprio]

I like Connemara, but the 12 yr old is too expensive. I had a box of three minatures recently.

Anyway, to my point, the 12 yr old is super. Great balance of smoke and sweetness and beautiful clean malt. I'd almost buy a whole bottle.

i have to say i loved them both. I have only tried them though at tastings, and the standard Connemara is on my list. the 12 is a bit out of my price range for now though.

Pat

[Frodo]

I really like the Connemara 12 year old as well but it is not worth $120 US dollars.

I have yet to taste the Magilligan. They have a sherry cask one that would be interesting, as almost all of Cooley's stuff is matured in bourbon casks.

1) I think Conemarra 12 is worth $120 cdn at the LCBO given what else you can get at that price point. $120 US might be a different story given some of the deals you can find in the US at places like Binny's, Sam's and Bevmo.

2) I tried a limited edition Magiligan (sherry casked) at the tasting tower. Impressed, and almost (debatably) worth the $120 cdn in my view. My impression was that it had more personality and complexity than Bushmills or Lockes or many Middleton products, but you could definatly tell it wasn't Scotch. The sherry casking was done with a deft touch IMHO.

[Aidan]

Cooley matures just about all of its whiskey in bourbon casks. They tried sherry casks, but were sold dud barrels from Scotland. I don't know where exactly they got them. They had to dump the whisky. I don't know where the sherry barrels for the Magilligan came from.

[Deactivated Member]

Surprised those canny Scots didn't buy the whiskey back cheap, sell it in the groceries at £8/bottle, and point to it as evidence of inferior Irish product!

[zhi]

Everyone here seems to enjoy connemara. Has anyone tried their cask strength bottling? What are you opinions? I saw one at a liquor store recently and was tempted to get it.

[Matt2]

The CS is excellent. I always add water to CS (and most other bottlings) so for me it just makes a bottle go further, although it did seem to have a slightly deeper flavour. If you like the standard then you will love the CS.

It is quite an expsensive dram, but one that I would happily pay the money for.